A Taste of Irony

Bench Racing

It's fascinating to me that so many automotive enthusiasts are fervently anti-intellectual.

The reason I find it so fascinating is that it's completely ironic.

Their interest lies in a subject that is born entirely from intellectualism.

I realize that for a lot of people the following truth may be hard to swallow, but were it not for the educated – the erudite, the artistic, the cultured – the automobiles they love wouldn't exist.

While the snobs of the world may bash less refined vehicles like Camaros and Mustangs, the fact is, these vehicles didn't come from uneducated or simple folk. Both of these vehicles were originally examples of devolved technology used in an effective manner for the purpose of producing vehicles that were both potent performers and able reach the poorer masses.

Basically what that means is that they utilized streamlined, high-end technology and took out all of the bells and whistles to produce something that was financially attainable for a larger group of people – that technology wasn't created from scratch by less educated people and halted in its development when it reached a suitable state to meet the car's needs.

There's a reason the Camaro used a great deal of hand-me-down Corvette technology, and the Mustang rode on the backs of vehicles like the Cobras and the GT-40s.

That approach is still the norm, and if you think otherwise, let me point to a single component to keep the example from making this post way too long: the engine.

The Camaro still uses the Corvette engine. The Mustang uses the engine out of the Lincoln Mk VIII. In both cases, they use more refined technology, transplanted for a specific purpose – not the other way around.

With the availability of knowledge in this day and age, the sad truth is, being anti-intellectual is akin to starving yourself on a farm producing tons of food because you think eating is for those entitled, snobby bastards "over there."

It's not.

Knowledge, art, and culture are for everyone. If you haven't already, try some. They really don't taste as bad as you might think.